The Mirror Shiner is found in the upper Tennessee River Drainage in Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Virginia, and in the headwaters of two Atlantic Coast drainages in Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. They live in sandy or rocky pools and backwaters of creeks to medium rivers. Breeding male Mirror Shiners have large breeding tubercles, horny projections used in spawning, on the first ray of their pectoral fins.